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Ecw Press - Paul Logothetis

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158 pages

English

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The first ever biography of Toe Blake - Hockey Hall of Famer and eleven-time Stanley Cup winner. 'Holy Dirty Dora!' Hector 'Toe' Blake would bark while pacing behind the Montreal Canadiens bench, hands thrust into his pockets, jawing at chewing gum before intentionally banging his forehead into the glass that separates players and fans. No lead was safe or sufficient for the lifelong hockey man at the helm of the greatest dynasty in NHL history. As a player, Toe won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Maroons before captaining a stumbling Canadiens organization to glory and a pair of Cups. As the Habs coach, Toe cemented the team s status as lords of the league with eight more. Born into a family of 11, Blake emerged from the poverty of the Depression and a youth spent working the mines of Sudbury s Nickel Belt to find junior hockey success and an unlikely shot at the NHL. While a fiery temper and penchant for stick-swinging nearly railroaded Toe s promise, the Canadiens recognized his ta

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Publié par	Ecw Press
Date de parution	24 mars 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781773054827
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0550€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Toe Blake
Winning Is Everything
Paul Logothetis

Contents Dedication Foreword Author’s Note & Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Appendix: Toe Blake Timeline Photos About the Author Copyright

Dedication
To Jacqueline, Jorgia, and Montreal Canadiens fans everywhere.

Foreword
By Scotty Bowman
Toe Blake had such a formidable influence on my coaching career that it can feel very difficult to put my thoughts into words. Although I did not have a first-hand perspective of seeing Toe during his playing career, I did have an in-depth view of his coaching career from the early Fifties when he took charge of the Valleyfield Braves of the Quebec Senior League. Coaching a small market team in that league was quite a challenge, but Toe always accepted challenges. His work with Valleyfield meant he often competed against Punch Imlach and his Quebec Aces Senior team, which included a young center named Jean Beliveau, and the experience paved the way for Toe to be so successful coaching the Montreal Canadiens to eight Stanley Cup wins in his 13 years in charge. This remarkable feat will go down in NHL history as unmatched. Watching Toe win the Stanley Cup in his first five seasons (from 1956 to 1961) leading the Canadiens inspired me to be a coach, and I started my junior coaching career at this same time with the Ottawa Junior Canadiens.
I next got to meet Toe in 1964 when I became coach of the Jr. Canadiens in Montreal. It was then that he became my mentor and good friend. With the expansion of the NHL in 1967, I was hired as the coach of the St. Louis Blues and eventually lost to Toe Blake’s Canadiens team in the 1968 Stanley Cup Final, which was his eighth and last Stanley Cup win. When I returned to Montreal as coach in 1971, Toe was an advisor with the Canadiens and we had so many great times and visits as we won five Cups in eight years. His strong attributes became the footprint of my lengthy coaching career. Accountability, honesty and practice were the hallmark habits that made Toe, and he passed them on to me. They are also the qualities I have always referred to as why Toe Blake should be regarded as the most successful NHL coach in history.
His playing career in Montreal briefly included a stint with the Montreal Maroons followed by a stellar career with the Montreal Canadiens, where he was a member of the famous Punch Line with Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard, and he was named “The Old Lamplighter” in reference to his goal-scoring ability. Rightfully so, Toe is an honored member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and it is truly unique that his playing career and coaching career were so successful. I am truly blessed to have known Toe Blake as my mentor and good friend.
Regards,
Scotty Bowman, January 2020

Author’s Note & Acknowledgements
The idea of a biography of Toe Blake had been simmering in my mind for years. I was afforded the opportunity to meet Toe as a child through his son Bruce. I was in my early teens and I had just returned from the Doug Crossman hockey camp to find Toe visiting Bruce and the family one summer day. Toe spoke to me about hockey and offered to test out the goalie skills I’d picked up. Suddenly, goalie pads were strapped on to my legs and a glove and blocker emerged and Toe grabbed a hockey stick and started firing shots at me. A moment of nostalgia that remains burned into the memory. Why was that? Because I was lucky enough to understand who Toe was, what he stood for and what that meant to the Montreal Canadiens franchise.
Toe evoked the championship pedigree of Stanley Cups, record runs and winning. I relish having had the opportunity to see this firsthand with the Stanley Cup triumphs of 1986 and ‘93. I know that Toe was involved with the 1986 Cup run, traveling with the team to Calgary for the Final and offering encouragement to the team behind the scenes. The contrast to today’s Montreal Canadiens group is astounding; when I mentioned Toe Blake’s name to one leading player during interviews for this book it only evoked a vacant stare. This, despite Toe’s image being painted right above us on the locker room alongside other Habs greats. Has hockey forgotten Toe? It feels like it. The Montreal Canadiens take such great pride in celebrating their illustrious past and the greats who made a mark on the franchise, and yet Toe is rarely honoured. A visit to the Bell Centre offers little by way of homage except for a plaque that blends in with the others. Nothing more to remind us that winning was the only thing that mattered—not making the playoffs and then seeing what happened. Such a strategy would have made Toe’s blood boil. Everything you did, every action you took had one single outcome: victory. A glance up to the rafters at the Bell Centre displays retired jerseys that hang as generational reminders, and yet nothing reminds us of Toe. His Punch Line teammates Maurice Richard and Elmer Lach both have their jerseys retired, but not Blake’s No. 6. I hope this maiden biography about one of old-time hockey’s greatest influences can help remind us of his influence and contributions to the club.
Having worked for over a decade in Europe and followed the daily narrative that is world soccer, I always admired how knowledgeable the fans were of the historic greats of their sport, regardless of tribal connections. You could travel to a remote village in Spain and mention the name of Alex Ferguson, identified by many as one of the greatest soccer managers of our time, and no one would bat an eye; every soccer fan would know the Manchester United figure and his exploits. Even if he coached in another league, country, or continent – the game honours him. I could not comprehend how no biography about the greatest coach in NHL history had never been written. Not only that, but one of the 100 greatest players in NHL history.
Researching this book was a combination of archival research and interviews with former players, acquaintances and family members. In those instances when you are with Toe and his thoughts, these are observations and quotes from Toe that have been paraphrased to reflect the moment, as he has described it. It was impossible to be inside of Toe’s head but the research, his own words from interviews and memories from those who knew him helped construct this aspect of the narrative. I thank Toe’s son Bruce for giving me his blessing to move forward on the project and for providing valuable family insight. Many of the anecdotes and memories date to over 40 years ago so I thank everyone who was so patient with my repetitive questions, especially former players and colleagues of Toe’s. There was a lot of microfiche loaded and scrolled through, radio and TV clips reviewed, and all kinds of genealogy documents consulted. I thank the people at Radio-Canada, Archives Canada, The Hockey News and the Hockey Hall of Fame for all of their assistance in digging up documents for me, as well as sites like Ancestry.ca and Newspapers.com for providing me access to their own library of records.
I must also thank my family for their support, especially my wife Kimberly who put up with so many hours and weekends of me away writing or doing research in the library to take care of our girls, Jacqueline and Jorgia. My mother Revilla has always been one of my biggest supporters and I also have to thank Carol and Alex for letting me borrow their cottage for a few days to put the final touches on the manuscript.
I’d also like to thank ECW Press for taking a chance on a first-time author and for showing genuine excitement on this project from the start. My editor Michael Holmes has worked diligently with me to get this book done, just like everyone who calls the office on Gerrard Street East home. It has been a long, winding process, but it is something that I have taken great joy and purpose in doing. Now, I hope you, the reader, can enjoy a portrait of Toe’s remarkable and eventful life and his influence on one of professional sport’s proudest franchises.
Paul Logothetis, January 2020

Chapter 1
Game Day
There is little to hold your eye as you glance around Bruce Blake’s dining room. But the view to the lake is captivating, giving the cedar walls and close confines a breath of fresh air. Bruce sits at the table with a cigarette in hand, watching the snow trickle down and emitting a terse cough between drags. Ash dangles off the tray onto the thick plastic cover draping the table. Bruce is gaunt and pale, and his breath wheezes with excitement when an incredulous moment or personal anecdote about his father comes to mind. Their relationship was turbulent: Bruce, the lone son to a father who found himself the middle member of a family of 13 scraping through the Great Depression.
In his small cottage on the lake, Bruce might be able to forget about the explosive family dinners, the wild locker room celebrations, the lonely nights in an empty home, the inexplicable, tragic curse that seems to follow his family. Though it’s likely easier in the summer months, over beers with long-time friends who are up at the cottage for the season, or by pulling out his long, slender walking stick and stepping out for a stroll amid the evergreen, oak, cedar and birch trees that populate the surrounding woods. These are the months when Montreal and its fan base exhales, when the Canadiens take a break and Bruce can, too.
Winter, meanwhile, is another story.
Every period in an 82-game NHL schedule provides a flashback to the past.
His father would have never juggled the lines like